Jan: Hey, guys, good to have ya here. Nice pics, although it certainly wasn’t a group photo. So how far apart to you live from each other?

Bas: A little over 50 km apart.

Jan: Wow, pretty close then.

Jan: So did you all know each other prior to sim racing?

Rogier: Bas and me have known each other all our lives, or at least his life. I’m almost half a year older Our parents lived next to each other so we almost grew up like we were brothers.

Bas: Yes, we’ve known each other our entire lives. Rog is a half a year older then me and thats the only part I wasn’t their for.

Jan: Have you ever been to Zandvoort for a DTM race? (that’s a cool track!) Any other track or race series?

Bas: Yes, 1 time for DTM and a couple of other times for different series and events. Basically we have seen many different types of racecars there including: F1, GT’s. touringcars, Formula cars and even motogp bikes.

Rogier: I have been to Zandvoort several times, not for a DTM race though. The Masters of Formula 3, one of the biggest races in Formula 3 in the world, is an annual event at Zandvoort, often with F1 demonstrations and such. I’ve been there several times. Other than that I have visited one F1 Grand Prix on the Nurburgring a few years back. And I have been on the car park outside of Hockenheim (old style) when there was an F1 Grand Prix, but that probably doesn’t count as having been there. Been to Spa too, but not when there was any racing going on.

Jan: You all have been running TPTCC for quite a few years now. Name some of your fave moments/seasons…

Bas: Without a doubt the BMW e21 series and then especially the race at Infineon. We had a 6 way battle for the win there with PeterV, Raymond Rieux, Chuck, Jason, Rog and me. We swapped the lead so many times among each other, that was by far the most entertaining race I did with you guys.

Rogier: First a confession. When we started here at TPTCC in NR2K3 days (TPTCC mod) Bas and me were actually one.

Jan: So how did that work? Did you all swap out drivers? One race one weekend and another the next?

Rogier: I got up, drove for 45 mins to Bas’ place where we ran the races on his pc. We used to split the sprint races between us and for the touring races we made a pit stop halfway through the race, to do a hotswap.
Driver name was RoggelMcSmall (free translation of Rogier de Klein) and team name was Scuderia Bollesnegro (free translation of Zwartenbol, Bas’ last name). First favourite moment was in that TPTCC mod season, when Bas and me had been running in Group B, using the wrong physics (touring instead of GT or something) for the entire season. We finally found out why we were 20 mph slower on the straights! When we fixed that and got a setup from Kevin White we immediately won our first race at Lime Rock!
Other favourite moments were my first solo wins. That was right after rejoining TPTCC (I missed a season after the switch to rFactor). Double sprint victory in the first event of the season (still group B) with the Porsche/BMW mod at Laguna Seca. After that I switched to group A.
Many good moments followed, but especially the atmosphere here keeps getting me up at nights!
Without a doubt the last two season were the best I’ve done. I have always missed races or blew it myself early in the season and such, but now I finally had a chance to fight for the title in Group A and won it on both occasions. Especially the competition with John Graf over the past Winter Season is one to remember. I had to do it before becoming a daddy, and it worked!

Jan: How did Scuderia Bollesnegro start?

Bas: Back in 03 or 04 when we started simracing, we soon figured it’s more nice to drive as a team than alone. Seeing we entered TPTCC under Rogier’s name we both thought it fair that I could name the team; since bollesnegro was a very loose
translation of my last name the choice was made pretty quick and the team was born. In the last years we had over 20 different guys racing under the teambanner with success in a lot of different classes and mods.

Jan: Name some of your worst…

Bas: Any race that Rogier wins.

Jan: Heh, heh! Me too!

Rogier: I don’t want to pull old cows out of the canals (free translation of a Dutch expression) ? If I had to mention something, I would name some drivers that left us over the years. The death of Gregg Lamar jumps to mind. But I also think of drivers like Blair Disley, Peter Valkovic, Raymond Rieux and Pete Bunce, and I am sure I’m forgetting some of them.

Jan: So what real drivers do you all really like? What real series do you follow?

Bas: I like all drivers that win or do an important job for Ferrari, I’m also a big fan of dutch legends like Gijs van Lennep (2 times LeMans winner), Jan Lammers (1 time LeMans winner) and ofcourse Arie Luyendijk.

Rogier: I only actively follow F1 at the moment. And with me being a huge Ferrari fan I have to mention Alonso as one of my favourite drivers. But I like many other racing series as well.

Jan: Wow…you all have one of the best GT series, you race in a GT series, and you don’t watch the FIA GT championship?

Rogier: I do watch it when I can… but for those races I just accidentally turn on the tele on the right channel at the right time! Ijn the case of F1 I know the calendar, set an alarm for races in Asia and Australia and such, so there’s a difference! Adding to that is that here in The Netherlands there’s no live broadcast for lots of good motorsport, or only on channels you have to pay for.

Jan: I heard that Dutch racing fans are nuts. Is that true?

Rogier: Dutch people are nuts (it’s the drugs), so that is probably true for the racing fans as well. You should have seen the celebrations here after becoming 2nd(!) in the most recent soccer World Cup.

Bas: Not only for racing, when we go to international events we show ourselves in the best way we can, with orange clothes, big flags and lots of Heinekens to make it a big party. Our national events are the same with the exception that instead of a party we make trouble.

Jan: If you had the ability to join a real series and race a car, which one would you pick…and why? Have you done any real racing before?

Rogier: No real racing, don’t have the money for that. If I would have the ability to join somereal racing series… any series, any car?! Probably not, but I don’t think I should be too picky.

Bas: At the moment I would say the the FIA GT1 series in their new sprint format, fantastic close racing with the best sportscars in the world. I wouldnt care which car to race as long as it isnt a Ford.

Jan: A ha…so does that mean you wouldn’t race THIS car?

Bas: Indeed Jan, that car is for girls (just look at the all women drivers line up they got) And me being a huge Ferrari supporter the GT40 (and the reason why its build back then) doesn’t make my heart go any faster!!

Jan: I think I just heard you call the Ford GT a GIRLY car! That’s ok, jealousy will get you nowhere!

Jan: So I understand that Bas has a problem with his driver’s license…what’s that all about?

Rogier: True

Bas: Lazy is as lazy does.

Jan: Heh, heh!

Jan: If you were given some cash for a new (street) car…what would you get?

Bas: Cadillac CTS-V.

Jan: Good choice, even if it isn’t a Ford…

Rogier: Maserati Quattroporte, but that’s only because I chose one that fits my current family situation.

Jan: Wow, for a 4 door, that’s pretty nice! Ok, so tell us a funny story about each other….

Bas: Well I got many but I will give you a simracing anecdote:

It was the 2005 Bullrun 1000 our first try at it, we had been practicing for many weeks and were really prepared for the event. Come race day I traveled to Rogier’s place in Rotterdam, bags filled with red bulls and other “keep me awake” products were purchased to help us during the event. Qualifying starts and Rogier, who was a little bit faster than me got the honors of doing the qualifying.

He drives out on track and then gets an unexpected phone call from his girlfriend, with one hand he’s driving the car in the outlap. Taking as much time as his gf needs to yell and complain about something (I never asked what) very pissed off he ends the conversation. Sharp as a razor he goes around All or nothing and starts his run, first corner comes and he destroys the car on impact with the wall.

The room where we were sitting in suddenly got quiet, me thinking what a dumbass and Rogier thinking what a DUMBASS. We had to start in lastplace but drove one hell of a race to finish 6′ish but now Rog’s phone is unavailable for “important” races.

Jan: DOH! LOL!

Rogier: Funny story about Bas: It’s a good thing for Bas that sim racing doesn’t simulate g-forces. He gets nauseous quite easily. When his dad took flying lessons, the plane smelled like hell after a few mins in the sky, and I remember him making himself really popular in some attraction at a fair many years ago. He threw up and because of the speed other people automatically got a taste of it!

Jan: EEEEWWW! Glad I “missed” that one! I’m really impressed (and happy) that you all want to wake up early on a Saturday to race TPTCC…are you normally an early riser?

Rogier: Not at all!!! So this league must be really good! The birth of my son Nigel earlier this year has changed that a bit of course, but other than that I’m well known for my oversleeping and sleeping into the afternoon after late nights with too much alcohol

Bas: LOL, no way if there is anyone in the world you don’t want to wake up next to its me. I got a terrible temper waking up although once every 2 weeks it isn’t that bad.

Jan: Cool, guys, thanks for the interview, and good luck on the season!

John took both Group A wins in his Corvette, while Marcel put the 4wd to good use in his Skyline and took both Group B wins.

In race 1, Bevan Roberts put the first Aston at the top of the charts in Group A with his win at the track, while in Group B Rob Thaeler took his Mustang to the win.

In race 2, Bevan Roberts took the Aston to the top again in Group A, while in Group B Marcel Grevelt used his Skyline’s superb traction to win.

Rogier got off to a bad start in Group A having missed the starting lights, and John Graf took the lead in the final race. Rogier managed to scrap together enough to finish 4 points ahead of John by the end of the race!

Congrats to both of the Champions, Rogier in Group A and Rod in Group B. The Caddys swept the points!

In Group B, Rob T. and Tom took positions ahead of Rod, but with his 4th place finish, they couldn’t capitalize by race’s end.

In Group B, Jan Kohl got his first race win in 2010 by putting his Aston up front for a win in race 1, Rob Thaeler was close on his tail for 2nd. However, race two mirrored the Group A results in that Jan ended up 2nd, and Rob took the win in his Mustang.